The Little Red Book
by gah-linda
Summary: Random preseries story. Hyde learns a lesson about not judging people based on their clothes and cliques. That's the kind of thing that could apply to a certain cheerleader... Read and Review. Please?


A/N: Little Red Book: a collection of the sayings of Mao Zedong...basically Red Chinese propaganda. This is a random pre-series story. Hyde learns a lesson about judging people by their clique/style. Maybe. Review! But don't review about how the dates are about a decade off for Red to have actually picked up a Little Red Book in Korea…artistic license...blah blah blah…

**The Little Red Book**

A drop of sweat slid down Hyde's nose as he slowly tiptoed down the stairs from Eric's room, headed toward the Red's study. He cringed and froze when his foot hit a squeaky board, but regained his composure when no one in the house seemed to stir. With renewed confidence, he quickly skipped down the last few stairs only to hear timid footsteps following.

"Ummm…Hyde? What are you doing, man?" Eric's voice cracked on the last word, and Hyde laughed inwardly at his scrawny, awkward friend.

"Just getting a glass of water. Go back to sleep." With only a moment of hesitation, Eric turned and headed back to his room. Meanwhile, Hyde decided to play it safe and head to the kitchen for a few minutes before resuming his previous task.

After pouring himself a glass of water, Hyde sat down at the kitchen table and let his mind wander. The Foremans had been good to Hyde, always letting him sleep over when things at home got too hectic, and in a way he felt bad for what he was about to do. But not really.

Inside the large safe hidden in the study, there was an authentic Little Red Book that Red had lifted off of the body of a Chinaman in Korea. Hyde had always thought that it would be cool to have, but he never would have sunk so low as to steal from Red Foreman: the guy who had been more of a dad than the man who was in prison right now.

Shaking his head a little, Hyde looked out the glass doors in the kitchen where he could see light drifting from a second story window in the house next door. Donna's room. Donna was not the girl on his mind tonight, though. Annette Bennly, the super hot, super non-conformist older girl of Hyde's dreams was in that room with Donna, probably wearing skimpy, hot, non-conformist pajamas. Hyde smiled as he remembered the first time he had seen his crush. It was only two weeks ago when he had gone with the Foremans to Laurie's high school graduation. _What fucking bullshit._ Annette and some of her friends, who always wore ripped jeans and t-shirts from badass bands, had streaked across the stage at their graduation ceremony. When he found out that she and Donna knew each other from some writing course at the community college, Hyde was thrilled to have an 'in' with Annette. Someone with that much hatred for the man would surely love Red's book, and if he was the one to give it to her…

Getting up from the table, Hyde headed back to the den. He held his breath as he slid the door open, relieved when it didn't creak. Taking slow, even breaths, Hyde walked slowly to the wall safe and turned the dial. He had seen Red open it once before and had a general idea of the combination, so it only took him a few tries to pop it open. Inside was a bunch of junk—photo albums, passports, bank papers, legal papers…and the book. Hyde threw a glance over his shoulder, smiled, and pocketed the book. _Too fucking easy._ Hyde closed the safe, careful to leave the dial at the same place it had been when he came in, and skipped up the stairs with lightness in his heart. Tomorrow, he would give it to Annette. Tonight, he would have pleasant dreams.

* * *

_"You stole it? Righteous." Annette grabbed him by the shirt and thrust her tongue into his mouth, letting her hands wind through his curly hair._ _Hyde wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her willing body closer. Slowly her hand crept down from his hair, caressing his back and dipping inside his pants, grazing the top of his ass. "Is there any way I can…thank you?" Hyde smiled but remained silent, ever conscious of keeping his cool._

_Looking him in the eye, Annette slowly moved her hand to cup Hyde's crotch through his pants, massaging slightly before unzipping them. She skillfully worked her way into his boxers and began to stroke him, smiling as he let his head roll back on his neck. As his hips unconsciously jerked toward her hand, she began to pump her hand faster, allowing her thumb to rub over the head._

Hyde jerked awake at the sound of Eric's voice.

"Hyde. HYDE!" Eric shook his head, exasperated. "Breakfast, man." Hyde looked at Eric long enough to roll his eyes, and then turned onto his side.

"I'll be there in a few. Just…leave me alone." Eric stared at Hyde's back in confusion for a moment and then left the room giggling.

Groaning, Hyde sat up and surveyed the room around him. Eric's room didn't look much like the room of someone getting ready to start high school. Decorated with Lego crap and GI Joes, the room hadn't really changed much since he was five. Sometimes it seemed like Eric hadn't changed much since he was five, either. _Stupid mama's boy._ Of course, if Kitty Foreman were his mother, he might be a mama's boy too.

Hyde slowly stood up and pulled his jeans on over his boxers. His back was stiff and sore from the night of sleeping on the floor, and his dick was still hard as a rock from his dream. After pulling off his wrinkly shirt and stuffing it in his backpack, Hyde opened Eric's dresser and rummaged for the least pussy shirt he could find that would fit his broader frame. The corner of the red book was poking into his leg from the pocket of his jeans, so—swallowing a little guilt—he took it out and shoved it in the bottom of his backpack, zipping it up and sticking it in the corner. Then he headed downstairs for breakfast.

As he seated himself as the table and smiled a good morning to Mrs. Foreman, a plate of pancakes, eggs and bacon was set in front of him. _Goddamn I love this family._ Hyde shook his head and dug into the food in front of him.

Kitty watched him wolf down his breakfast, wishing she could do more for Steven Hyde. She shook her head, plastered a smile on her face and sat down with her family.

Eric looked at Hyde's disheveled appearance and almost giggled again at the strange moaning sounds Hyde had been making in his sleep. He shook his head, bit back his smile and stood up to take his dishes to the sink.

Red kept his head buried in the newspaper, growing angrier with every word he read. Throwing down the paper, he looked over to his wife. "Goddammit, Kitty, this country is going straight to hell." He shook his head and bit into a piece of bacon.

"So, Hyde, what would you like to do on this, our seventeenth day of summer vacation before we start high school?" Hyde shook his head at Eric's inane questioning and tossed the basketball he was holding, making a basket with no apparent effort.

"Eric, man, you know exactly what we're going to do, and quit counting the freakin' days of summer vacation or I'll kick your ass."

"Ok, Hyde, what crawled up your ass and died?" Hyde looked at him dangerously, and then remembered that Eric was his friend.

"Want to go over to Donna's? I want to see Annette today, and then we can walk over to the Hub." Eric's eyes lit up at the mention of Donna, but he gave Hyde a funny look when he mentioned Annette.

"What is up with you and that older girl? She's totally not interested in you, Hyde. I mean…she's at least four years older than you are. She _graduated_, man. She's…like…" Eric trailed off, staring into space.

"Whatever. Are you coming or not?" Hyde tossed the basketball aside and headed toward the Pinciotti house gesturing for Eric to follow. As they walked, Eric gathered the courage to question Hyde further about his crush.

"So, what exactly do you want with Annette?" Hyde looked at him, angry and defensive at first, then just perplexed as he saw no trace of sarcasm on Eric's face.

"I don't know. She's just…hot and dangerous and different. I don't know, man." Eric decided to let things be as he knocked on Eric's back door. They greeted Bob and walked up to Donna's room.

Donna opened her door to reveal that both girls were still in their pajamas. Donna wore a conservative flannel set, contrasting Annette's tiny shorts and spaghetti strapped tank. Hyde smiled at the hot, non-conformist pajamas and greeted Donna while Eric bumbled behind him.

"Just a minute, and we'll get dressed and meet you guys outside, ok?" Hyde nodded his head reluctantly, fingering the book he had placed back in his pocket, and suddenly wondered how he was going to get Annette by herself. As the boys headed back outside Hyde nudged Eric conspiratorially.

"Eric, man. Do you think you can distract Donna for long enough to let me talk to Annette for a few minutes? Like, tell her you could beat her at basketball any day."

"Man, Donna can kick my ass and we all know it."

"Eric, you just have to distract her for me; challenge her to one on one." Hyde rolled his eyes at his friend. "Please?"

"Fine Hyde, but I really think…" Hyde impatiently cut him off.

"Yeah, we all know what you think, Mr. Goody-two-shoes. Just give me a chance to talk to her alone." Eric rolled his eyes and was about to respond when Donna and Annette came out of the bedroom. Donna was wearing casual shorts and a tee-shirt, but Annette had on torn black jeans and a tight fitting shirt with the hammer and sickle on the front. Hyde smiled at the perfection of his plan. How could a chick in a commie shirt resist a real Little Red Book?

"So, Donna," Eric's voice cracked as he spoke her name and Hyde snickered at him out of sight of the girls. "Wanna play with me?" He blushed. "One on one, I mean?" He blushed harder, but tried again. "So, basketball?" Donna just smiled, and the two headed to the Foreman's driveway alone. As Annette went to follow, Hyde grabbed her wrist lightly to keep her behind in the Pinciotti's yard.

"Uh, I found something I thought you might like." Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he pulled out the book and showed it to her. She stared at him blankly.

"A book?"

"Not just a book! It's a real Little Red Book! Lifted off a Chinese soldier in Korea!"

"Uh, why was a Chinese soldier in Korea? With a stupid book?"

Hyde stared at her, his ideal of political rebellion, with disgust. "This is practically the Communist Chinese Bible! How can you wear that shirt and not know…?"

"Isn't this shirt cool? It's some kind of political symbol for communism or something." He was horrified.

"You! You…FAKE! You're exactly the kind of protester the government wants! You make us all look like idiots with no real cause! A cheerleader could be more of a threat to the man than you!" Hyde stuck the book back into his pocket and hurried back to the Foreman's, not noticing that when he passed Donna and Eric, they jumped away from a wrestling match guiltily.

Hyde snuck back into Red's study, quickly popped open the safe, and was about to put the book back where it belonged when he heard a noise behind him. Turning around guiltily, he saw none other than a red faced Red Foreman staring him down. Sighing deeply, Hyde handed Red the book and sat down on a chair to await a lecture.

"Before you say anything, Red, it wasn't for me. It was for a girl." He shook his head. "I thought she would like me if I had it, but she wasn't really what I expected." Red seemed to soften when he heard this.

"Is this about that stupid girl that ran naked at the graduation?" The older man couldn't keep a hint of a smirk off his face as he recalled the day. "You should stay away from girls like that; they're all trouble." Hyde shook his head.

"She wasn't trouble…that's the problem. She didn't even know what it was." He gestured to the book that now sat on a small table between them. Red laughed.

"It's a lesson we've all got to learn at some point, son." Hyde couldn't help smiling at the casual use of the word "son." Red nodded. "You know, when I met Kitty I was sure she wasn't my type. She seemed too popular and chatty to be with someone like me. But it's not about what she seems like at first. It's about who she really is. And sometimes a girl will surprise you." He smiled at a hidden memory and Hyde shifted nervously in his chair.

"I'm really sorry about all this, Red." The older man nodded sagely.

"You're a good kid, Steven." He paused for a moment and his eyes narrowed. "But if you ever go through my safe again, you'll be wearing your ass for a hat!

Hyde just nodded and left to find Eric and Donna. When he thumped down to the basement, he found both of them sitting with Kelso and some brunette girl he vaguely recognized from school.

"Hey Hyde," Donna called out to him. "This is Jackie Burkhardt."

"Kelso, man, a cheerleader? Come on." Nothing could be worse than a stupid cheerleader.


End file.
